I agree. While it is very thematic for Chiaki to have it, Yan Lo's crews already have so many points tied up in Ancestors and Retainers that having Chiaki tag along as an auto-include really puts a strain on crew building.
And with that trigger, I really think she is an auto-include.

How would you even play it on the table? If somebody throws a blow it to hell marker next to an impassable house, you would have to remove part of the house to be able to move models into the space.
While I think destructible terrain is a wonderful addition, most boards are not set up in a way that allows partial removal/destruction of bigger pieces of terrain.
It seems more practical to have the marker affect models.

In a casual setting it is perfectly fine to tell somebody "Sure, I'll play, but we have to be done in 3 hours because there's other stuff I have to do."
That other stuff could be going home to do laundry, going shopping or just hanging around with the other people who are done at that time.
This is sort of the same as what happens at tournaments: You know you have a set amount of time, so you have to play faster if you want to get the game done. I started playing heaps faster after my first 5 round tournament simply because I suddenly could not spend 5 minutes thinking about every move - and this made me stop doing that.
Ludwig's tips for casual play are very good - constructive and oriented towards teaching somebody to play faster. But there's nothing wrong with telling somebody that you can't spend half the day on one game and you want to be done by a set time.

Are you starting with a master? In the standard SL rules, you start with a Henchman-led 35 SS crew, where you have to pay the leader's cost in SS as well.
Masters also have a default cost of 15 SS once you get one.
Other than that, your list looks good. Lots of mobility and killing power - I too would add the Arcane Effigy. Conditions can really mess up low model count games, and in the beginning of the campaign, AP will be at a premium, so having cheap, durable scheme runners is *really* good.

Sun Quiang on a tome trigger with his peonizing action.
Lotus Eaters and Crime Bossess draw a card when an enemy scheme marker is placed within 6" of them.
There are also a few that are more like cycling cards:
Toshiro and Izamu both have a trigger (built in for Toshiro) to draw a card if they cheat the damage flip of their meelee attacks.
Wastrels get to draw a card if they use their Bravado ability while they have an upgrade equipped.
I'm sure there's more.

I am not very imaginative, so I'd probably take my standard HH list of
Toshiro
Izamu
Komainu
Komainu
It is quite vulnerable to blasts with lots of low df models, but armor should compensate a little for that.
The Komainu attack Snowstorm's weaker willpower stat and can reliably slow when they're near Toshiro, which should help with meelee attack. Ideally you would kill Snowstorm with Izamu from 3" away or use the Komainu to put enough burning on it to kill it by the end of turn and then use their (0) to place away and avoid the death explosion.
But Snowstorm is only one model... what about countering the rest of the crew?

I would play being in base contact with dense terrain as being inside it. Same for hazardous terrain.
The reason I bring up hazardous terrain is that it too only counts for models entering it, which makes a lot of hazardous terrain kind of weird. How do you play a huge cactus or a spiked fence? If it is impassable, you cannot enter it and take damage from it, but if it is not, you have find a way to let models stand on top of it/be inside it.
My solution is to let base contact count as entering terrain, especially for impassable terrain with other/relevant terrain traits. I don't see why you can't play dense the same way.

If no one else needs it, I like to stick Smoke Grenades on him. His size and low stats makes him such a tempting target for ranged control and condition attacks.
It's especially satisfying to change it to Recalled Training with a Terracotta Warrior once he gets into close combat.

Nah, just three 6+ Masks. That's a whole two more cards you can use for it!
I've mostly played Smoke and Shadows with Misaki (and always given her Misdirection) and I've never had the opportunity to bury three models with it. But I do see how the ability to unbury in a chain gives a crazy amount of mobility. I would love to hear your experiences with Jorogumo and Smoke and Shadows!